Category: India

Bikaner overnight camel safari and nearby rat temple

(sorry, power outage kept it short; now at my next stop, there is no USB port and the Internet is slow)

Surprisingly the 6-hour day train from Jodhpur to Bikaner was on time (within 3 minutes, which is as “on time” as can be).
Through scrubby desert from one desert town to another. Hot and dusty.

The 1-day, 1-night camel safari was very good – Rs1300/$32.50 (inc. food/water/tent) with www.camelman.com
I don’t think I could have handled a second day on the camel (bruises!). Dinner under the stars, campfire with live music, excellent food!
More details later when I do the “highlights” entry…

Photos: me on a camel; Nicole on a camel, plus the camel cart in background; musicians by campfire (note the accordion-like instrument on the left)

Jan on camel
Nicole on camel plus camel cart
Musicians

While I’m glad I went, the rat temple was a little disappointing because I was expecting hundreds if not thousands of rats – more like 100 if that.
It’s a 40 minute bus ride (Rs10/$0.25 on private bus; Rs15/$0.38 on gov’t bus) south of Bikaner.
It’s supposed to be good luck to see a white rat (we didn’t) but a Belgian couple at the guest house did – it was more of a whitish-brown colour, not lab-rat white.
Also, a rat running over your foot is good luck too, which also didn’t happen – though a few rats came up and sniffed my sock!

Tip: bring socks you can throw away (e.g. those free socks on the trans-oceanic flights), since the floor of the temple is filthy with rat and pigeon turds.

Photos: Front of Rat Temple; rats drinking milk inside

Rat Temple
Rats drinking milk inside

Red carrots in the market in Bikaner (all over India, really; they are a little sweeter than back home):

Red carrots (sweet)

Are trains late in India? You bet your @ss!

Sigh. The last three night trains have all been 4-6 hours late, which really cuts into the arrival day!
Tardiness seems to be a bigger problem in North India (at least in my experience).

So be forewarned – don’t count on swooping into a city in the early morning on a night train, then sneaking out again that night on the next one!

Update: my last (6-hour day) train left and arrived on time! (within 3 minutes)

Jodhpur – a great fort, not much else

Visited the fort which sits on a 130m/400ft rock outcropping above the blue-painted city.
The entrance fee (Rs250/$6.25) includes a great electronic audio guide which has just the right amount of info!
Very interesting, and well worth the visit!

Not much else to see here; the marketplace is so-so.
There is a living maharaja’s palace visible on a hill opposite the fort (i.e. south of the city), and the grounds/outer building are supposed to be nice, but I didn’t feel like trucking over there.

Interesting note: travellers coming from North India say Jodhpur is the cleanest city so far; we travellers coming from South India think Jodhpur is the dirtiest city so far! Yes, I like South India more!

Photos: Fort viewed from city; part of fort up close; blue city viewed from fort; clock tower in marketplace

I met up here with Nicole from Quebec (she had met up here recently with her daughter, who is travelling separately in India, for a wedding; her daughter got sick enough to go to the hospital but recovered); she’ll be going to Bikaner for the camel safari and nearby famous rat temple with me.

Tip: getting to Indian railway booking site even when blocked

Sometimes Internet cafes will block the http://www.irctc.co.in/ website (presumably to make you book through their related agent!)

You can get around this by typing in the IP address for the web site, i.e. http://203.94.240.82/ which will bring up the same website and you can then use it as normal.
(IP address may change over time; if it’s wrong, type “ping www.irctc.co.in” in a command window to get the right IP address).

Agra – no Taj Majal for you!

Well, my 12-hour night train was 4 hours late this morning, so I didn’t arrive in time for sunrise (one of the better, less crowded times to see the Taj Majal).

More importantly, as a group of Korean women on the train (who gave me some of their dinner last night, as they had too much food) pointed out, it’s “off” today. i.e. Closed. On a Friday! Oops, I missed that. In fact, I didn’t think to check it after my scare about Ellora and Ajanta caves being closed (the latter on Mon, the former on Tue – luckily I visited them the right way, or they would have both been closed on me!)

Oh well. I can’t say I was that incredibly keen to visit the Taj Majal (a World Heritage site) – it seemed like I “had” to. It does indeed look just like in the postcards (which is what a few travellers told me. Though to really appreciate it you have to see the intricate marble work up close.

Tip: Don’t expect the train to arrive on time. Very rare. Especially if you are counting on a pre-sunset arrival to view sunset somewhere special!
Tip: Double-check opening and closing times and days for major monuments or things you absolutely want to see, to avoid only being here when closed!

So I visited the Red Fort (also a World Heritage site), which was OK – two of the more interesting bits I wanted to see there were closed for renovations.
It’s one of the finest Mughal forts in India, from the 17th C. All red sandstone and white marble:

Red Fort

I did have a great view of the Taj Majal from the rooftop Shanti Lodge resto at lunchtime (in the Taj Ganj district immediately south of the Taj Mahal).
But I can’t get any closer to it, as I leave on a night train again tonight, for Jodhpur in Rajasthan.
In the photo with me in it, the structure on the left is the (main) south gate to the Taj Majal compound.

Taj Majal
Taj Mahal w/ Jan and south gate

 

Highlights of Goa – Old Goa

I did a brief 40 minute stop here on the way back to the train station. It’s about 10km east/inland of Panaji (Panjim) along the Mandavi River.
There are a half dozen large churches and cathedrals here (yet another World Heritage site!), with the main ones clustered on some treed parks.

Photos: the Basilica of Bom Jesus (which has the tomb and remains of St Francis Xavier); its richly gilded altar

Highlights of Goa – Arambol beach

I spent 4 nights in Arambol (Harmal) beach, which is the northernmost main beach in Goa, keeping in mind that Goa is about 100km long from north to south, as the crow flies. Plus, if you want to leave by long-distance train or plane, you have to back to/near Margao/Madgaon anyways (originally I wanted to go to northern beaches because I though it would be a little more “on my way” to Mumbai, but no).

Highlights of Goa – Benaulim beach

Each beach in Goa has its own character; the two I went to were very different, but neither one was picture postcard perfect (supposedly Agonda beach in south Goa comes closest, while still being quiet).

Highlights (or rather points of interest) of my 2 nights in Benaulim beach (technically I might have been in Serabatim beach, which is in between Benaulim and Colva beaches):

  • Conveniently close (6km) to Margao (Madgaon) where the train station is (recall that i was sick in the train while getting to Goa…)
  • Quiet beach
  • Few hawkers/touts
  • Mostly an older crowd
  • You could walk northwards to busier Colva beach (lots of watersports – parasailing was only Rs500/$12.50 with some haggling!!), which is popular with Indian families

Photos: my hotel and resto Coco Huts; barefoot on a shaded beach lounge chair (free); view north from my hotel resto; little crab that digs itself into the sand at edge of surf (even on my hand, it would dig into the little pile of sand and tickle my hand); fishing boat and family on the beach

Varanasi for a brief day

My (24 hour ride) train arrived at 1:30 (am), over 6 hours late (i.e. 30 hours long). They gave my room away, so I weaseled a cot with fresh sheets in the staff room (they sleep on mats in the lobby) for free (I tipped him this morning), and was able to use the common shower/toilet (for some of the rooms) this morning, since I had been in the same clothes for 48 hours! I got up at 5:30 for boat tour on river, but weather is poor (foggy) so it was a little disappointing. And cold. Well, 19°C with fog/haze and wind and no sun felt mighty cold without a real sweater on! I was told the weather was quite unusual and it had been nice in the morning all week (plus, it didn’t get sunny until mid-afternoon!) I’m leaving Varanasi for Agra in a few hours – a 12 hour night train! Unfortunately this means I will miss the Shiva festival tonight (and tomorrow night), but I didn’t know about that. Tip: don’t schedule just one day in a town if it is important, esp. if you want sunshine for good photos! Too much travel, will cut Jaisalmer out of that itinerary…

Update: I did watch some cremations at Manikarnika Ghat, the main one with continual cremations (24 hours a day, a good dozen at once). More on that when I do the highlights. Inhaling that smoke didn’t help my lungs any (I started coughing again on the long train ride coming here).